News reports

Ten years ago the average
full-time adult male worker in NSW took home more than his counterpart
in Western Australia by a margin of $70 per week.

These days Western Australian men outpace NSW men by $335 per week.
Western Australia eclipsed the Australian Capital Territory as the
highest earning state or territory more than a year ago.

For women the margins between states are little changed, suggesting
Western Australia’s earnings growth is being driven by the
male-dominated mining and construction industries.

Mining workers are by far Australia’s highest paid according to the
Bureau of Statistics figures with full-time men in thee industry taking
home an average of $120,100 per year. Full-time women in the industry
take home $91,100...

The worst-paying industries are retail sales and
accommodation & food services, each paying both men and women an
average of around $51,100.

The ABS figures appear to show the male-female wage gap widening to a 25
year high but Melbourne Institute labour specialist Mark Wooden
believes the averages may reflect the changes in the composition of the
workforce rather than changes in wages themselves.

“It employment in the low-wage jobs in the services sector was growing,
and if those jobs were prominently filled by women that could push down
average female wages without pushing down any actual wages,” he told the
Herald.

“If employment in low-wage jobs in manufacturing was falling, and if
those jobs were predominantly filled by men that could push up average
male wages without pushing up actual wages,” he said.

The fastest growing average wages over the past year have been in
wholesale trade (up 11.9 per cent), health care and social assistance
(up 6.9 per cent), arts and recreation (up 5.5 per cent) and
construction (up 5.4 per cent), and accommodation & food services (5
per cent).

Wages growth has been the weakest in administrative and support services
(down 2.8 per cent), rental hiring & real estate (down 0.1 per
cent).

Mining wages, previously increasing strongly, grew 4.8 per cent. Across
all industries average full-time wages grew 5.1 per cent, a
comfortable margin above the inflation rate of 3.5 per cent.

“These figures won’t alarm the Reserve Bank,” said Commonwealth
Securities economist Savanth Sebastian. “They tend tends to overstate
growth in wages, as the balance or workers shifts from full-time to
part-time and shifts across industry sectors.”

The Australian government is set to announce changes to the 457 visa system in order to attract more overseas workers.

Chris Bowen, the immigration minister, said a new accreditation
scheme for the foreign worker visas will begin next week, on 7 November.

“This will continue to ensure that the 457 program is responsive to
the economic cycle and provides a flexible avenue for employers to fill
immediate and short-term skill vacancies, while maintaining
opportunities and conditions for Australian workers,” Bowen said.

One state, Western Australia, saw its intake of 457 visa workers rise
85 per cent in July compared with the same month last year.

Bowen explained that part of this rise in numbers is due to improved
processing times.”Average processing times for 457 visa applications are
also 30 per cent lower than they were in 2006-07 – down from 31 to 22
days,” he said.”Our aim is to see 457 visas processed within 10 days.

Skills Australia has now released the summary sheets for all
occupations that are on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) for migration
purposes announced by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship on
Monday 17 May 2010.

Recruitment firms have predicted an imminent skills shortage in the ICT
industry, specifically in mid-level management, as a result of reduced
hires during the global financial crisis (GFC).

Hays Information Technology, regional director,
Peter Noblet, said that during the downturn, employers were reluctant to
hire graduates for entry-level positions, instead choosing to develop
their already-existing staff.

“As a result,
organisations are not only at risk of being top-heavy, but they will
soon struggle to find candidates at the mid-level with around three
years experience. The recruitment battle for this mid band will
intensify and moving forward companies will find themselves under
pressure to promote and up-skill quickly to fill and replace that lost
layer of their workforce," Noblet said.

"Santos managing director David
Knox admitted a potential lack of workers was an issue. ''The issue of
labour is clearly something we have to work hard on,'' he said."A $100-BILLION gas deal signed yesterday puts Queensland only a
step away from 6000 new jobs and $120 million a year in state royalties.

French oil and gas giant Total paid $860 million to sign on as a 20 per
cent partner of Santos's liquefied natural gas project in Gladstone and
committed to buying enough gas, along with Malaysian partner Petronas,
to help underwrite the $7-billion scheme.

Nationally, unemployment fell from 5.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent. The
Santos-Total gas deal was considered a massive shot of confidence for
the emerging industry with the 18,000 jobs the four planned projects are
expected to generate.

Total's involvement means that the world's
fifth biggest oil and gas company had confidence in the project, Deputy
Premier Paul Lucas said.

However, Santos managing director David
Knox admitted a potential lack of workers was an issue. ''The issue of
labour is clearly something we have to work hard on,'' he said.

Companies already are hiking salaries in the mining sector and diesel
mechanics are earning up to $50 an hour in Bowen Basin mines while
highly skilled engineers are being offered up to $200,000 a year.

Even mining recruitment companies in the resources sector are finding it tough.

''I'd
employ a dozen recruiters today if I could find the right people,''
Brisbane-based Talent2 general manager Craig Sneesby said.

He said
a perfect storm was developing that would eventuate when the Queensland
mining industry and the emerging gas industry started to fight over
employees.

''It will be an arm wrestle for talent,'' he said. ''We
are right at the tipping point and we have so many customers who are
stockpiling staff.''

In 1996, the Howard government introduced the 457
business visa, which is uncapped and driven by employers' demands for
personnel, and provides a pathway to permanent migration.

Economic migration policy expert Alan Chanesman, chief
executive of immigration strategy firm Lipman James, told the World
Computer Congress in Brisbane that the IT sector in particular is
especially valuable, as it fuels the economy with billions of dollars
contributing to 66 per cent of GDP.